Art of Supply

During the pandemic, some buyers and suppliers made aggressive bets about the future. 
Demand was surging, capacity was constrained, and everyone worried more about shortages than oversupply. For a while, it looked like the logic was sound, but now one of those agreements has turned into a $175.5 Million jury verdict.
Boston Beer Company (through its subsidiary American Craft Brewery) has been found liable in a dispute with their supplier Ardagh Metal Packaging over minimum can purchase requirements.
The contracts that offer safety during times of scarcity can quickly become liabilities when markets normalize. Companies increasingly have to navigate both realities at the same time.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers:
 - The background of the Ardagh Metal Packaging and Boston Beer Company dispute
 - Why pandemic-era supply assumptions created long-tail contractual risk
 - The legal arguments around minimum purchase commitments and supplier quality claims
 - What this case teaches us about flexibility, forecasting, and commercial risk allocation
 
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"We have seen a transformation between the public sector and the private sector in terms of their relationship. We've seen enormous change in this country." - Guy Battle, CEO of Social Value Portal
The U.K. Social Value Act of 2012 requires all public sector buyers to ask suppliers how much their business will contribute to the community if they win the work up for bidding. It has not just become a differentiator among supplier proposals, it has shifted how the government is awarding its contracts.
Contributions to social value are now being included in the award process alongside cost and quality.
Guy Battle is the CEO of the Social Value Portal, and the author of a recent article published in the Journal of Public Procurement: "Social value as a lever for achieving value for money and community outcomes in procurement." He describes social value as a business's answer to the question: How do you contribute to our environment, support the local community, and bolster the local economy?
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Guy discusses social value with Kelly Barner in the context of:
The longer term corporate social responsibility (CSR) and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) movement
Current regulations, and how they started a shift that has moved beyond compliance
What has been required to allow social value to build momentum and achieve scale
How public sector policy can drive change across the private sector supply base
 
Links:
Guy Battle on LinkedIn
JoPP Article: Social value as a lever for achieving value for money and community outcomes in procurement
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Amazon packages represent 15% of the United States Postal Service's package volume, but about 7.5% of their revenue. Amazon is USPS's biggest customer, even though Amazon passed the USPS to become the largest domestic parcel carrier in 2025.
The current Amazon - USPS agreement expires on September 30, 2026, just days before the USPS may run out of the cash required to operate. Amazon has signaled that they would like to replace the USPS with their own network, but doing so will be more expensive than the company may have bargained for.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers the public positioning and power dynamics playing out between Amazon and the U.S. Postal Service:
The history and current status of the relationship between the two organizations
How the U.S. Post Office is trying to bring market pricing into their negotiations with shippers - and how Amazon responded to that strategy
Why the final outcome in this story is something all consumers may be affected by
Links:
UPS Picks Profitability Over Volume, and The Teamsters Push Back
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"This was a company that was once all about volume, was all about customer service, was all about growth, was all about sales, was all about creating jobs." - Sean O'Brien, General President, International Brotherhood of Teamsters
In 2024, Amazon accounted for 11% of UPS's revenue but between 20% and 25% of U.S. network volume.
When UPS announced that they were planning to reduce their Amazon package volume by over 50% in early 2025, the market responded negatively. Not only did their revenue decline, but they were also forced to reduce headcount by 48,000, shutter 93 facilities, and restructure their delivery network.
UPS is working through the fallout resulting from that decision, which includes offering six-figure buyouts to unionized drivers. The Teamsters are pushing back hard, arguing that even voluntary driver buyouts violate contract terms and undermine union protections.
This may look like a story about cost cutting, but it's really about UPS's efforts to shift from volume to profit margin in a competitive market.
In this episode of the Art of Supply podcast, Kelly Barner covers:
Why UPS is cutting Amazon volume and what that means for them financially, operationally, and from a labor perspective
The structure and controversy of the 2025 and 2026 driver buyout programs
The Teamsters' legal and contractual response to the company's current plan
The broader implications for supply chains and labor 
Links:
Kelly Barner on LinkedIn
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"If you focus too much on efficiency, you might get something cheap – but it doesn't deliver what you want. If you focus too much on effectiveness, you might spend more than you need. Those two sides need to be balanced." - Andrew Quincey
It is much more difficult to measure value than savings, so even the most skilled procurement professionals tend to focus on savings instead of value. If, however, it is possible to identify why something is being done and how it is being done, procurement will be positioned to drive better overall outcomes. 
Andrew Quincey is a procurement professional and academic with Leeds University Business School in the U.K. In this episode of Art of Supply, he comments on a recent article he wrote for the Journal of Public Procurement: "Achieving Value for Money Equilibrium."
He highlights how procurement can move beyond execution to play a more strategic role across the entire value chain, with a special focus on complex public-sector environments.
In this episode, Andrew and Kelly Barner discuss:
The concept of "value for money equilibrium" and how balancing effectiveness and efficiency can lead to better outcomes
How and why complexity increases exponentially in procurement projects, and what to do about it
Practical ways procurement can move upstream, influence strategy, and engage more effectively in the "why" behind purchasing decisions
Links:
Achieving value for money equilibrium (Emerald Publishing)
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